BIRMINGHAM, Ala (WIAT) – It’s the way more than 25-billion songs have been purchased around the world, and it’s celebrating a big birthday!

Tech Tuesday discusses the epic achievements of iTunes, and how it has changed the way we purchase music forever.

This is how Tech Tuesday’s David Powell breaks it all down, in his words:

* Just how big is iTunes? In 2008, iTunes took over as the world’s largest music retailer. Passing the likes of Wal-Mart and Target. That is really amazing in that it only 6 years for them to do that. iTunes launched with 20,000 songs in their library, now they have 26 million. Amazing growth really. 80% of US consumers who purchase music do so from iTunes.

* How much do the artists get? For every 99 cent song you download, the artist gets about 8 cents. Apple gets 29 cents. This is still a huge point of contention for artists. But, since Apple owns the distribution model and the end-devices, they really have a strong point of control with the consumer, one that would be hard for the artists to fight.

* How many songs have been downloaded? The 1 billionth song was downloaded in 2008. It was downloaded by a 16 year old Michigan teen and was “Speed of Sound” by Colplay. Now, just 4 years later, 25 billion songs have been downloaded.

* What are the most downloaded songs? (See below for graphic.) iTunes users really seem to love their Black Eyed Peas, with “I’ve Got a Feeling” taking the top spot and “Boom Boom Pow” sitting at #3. Flo Rida also scores a top 10 most downloaded. The only “classic” song on the list, coming in at #21 is the karaoke fan favorite from Journey, “Don’t Stop Believing”. You have to admit, the list speaks volume about our culture. Basically, if they play the song in a football or NBA arena…it gets downloaded!

* Where is all this headed? Just like with anything else, it is headed to the “cloud”. Your music, your movies, your tv shows, all of it is going to reside in the cloud and you’ll be able to watch it on any of your devices. iTunes is making that transition with its integration into iCloud and we should look for tighter integration in the future. Happy 10th birthday iTunes!